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Degree and Year: BJ '88 (Broadcast News) Company: WCCO-TV Company Web Site: http://wcco.com/ Title: General Assignment Reporter City and State: Minneapolis, Minn. Describe your TV station. WCCO-TV is a CBS-owned and operated station. What do you do? I'm a general assignment reporter. How did you get your job? I was very lucky. I was in television for 10 years or so and then I decided to try a new challenge during the dot-com boom. I took a job as the editor of an online technology magazine at CNET. The dot-com crash convinced me to think about TV again. My former boss had just become News Director at WCCO-TV. She hired me to work as a reporter. What is your best professional lesson learned at the J-School? After the end of every newscast at KOMU, everyone would critique each other. You develop a thick skin and you learn to welcome constructive criticism. What is your favorite J-School memory? It's always a hoot to watch the blooper tape. I earned many, many appearances on that tape. It helps to laugh at your own mistakes. What would be your best advice to current students? Learn other skills and have other areas of expertise outside of journalism. Take substantive and practical classes now. I recommend business classes. It's quite possible in your future that you'll want to return to school for an MBA or other type of master's program. The classes you take as an undergrad could make it easier for you to complete that goal because you'd have fewer prerequisites to complete at the MBA level. What are you working on currently? General assignment stuff. During the last Nielsen book, I completed an investigative piece, but I don't have exciting plans for May. What do you consider to be your greatest professional achievement? There are some stories that I've done that ended up helping people. Those are very rewarding. What makes you good at your job? Ughk! What a question. I try to follow an important rule when producing a television news report. I keep this viewer request in mind - "Tell me something I don't already know." Who would you like to work with and why/or where would you most like to work? Wayne Freedman in San Francisco is very witty. I'd like him to teach me about writing. What are your next career steps? Eventually, I would like to teach at a small college. E-mail me if you know of any openings in a few years! What did you want to be as a kid? I wanted to work in television news. I watched too much TV as a kid and still do. 
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| Revised: 22 May 2007. Copyright © 2008 The Curators of the University of Missouri | Contact the J-School | |
